How to Write a Resume for a College Application | eHow

How to Write a Resume for a College Application

Prospective college students need to put their best foot forward and highlight their strengths, not their weaknesses. Volunteer activities, memberships in social clubs or honor societies, and career-oriented job experience are all excellent points to highlight in one’s resume. writers must make sure that the finished product creates a narrative that sets them apart. Rather than simply list one’s job history going back ten years, for example, a successful resume might list only those work experiences relevant to the course of study one wishes to pursue. There is no use rattling off half a dozen retail jobs on a nursing school application. That is simply not how to write a resume for college application, regardless of the situation.

The most successful resumes are broken into four sections: the candidate’s academic background, career background, extracurricular background, and a personal profile. The academic background section highlights the candidate’s educational experience from high school through college, vocational, post-graduate school, and so forth. Career background concerns the applicant’s work experience, with the most relevant positions emphasized over jobs of only tangential importance. It is important to draw a clear distinction between this section and the applicant’s extracurricular background, which as defined by experts on how to write a resume for college cannot include paid work history. Commonly cited extracurricular activities include volunteer work, religious activities, and cultural pursuits like music, writing, and so forth.